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Hi everyone, Winter in Illinois with no hope of cruising soon and waiting to get a vaccine so I can go to Disney was MAJORLY getting me down! It was time to come back home lol. I have missed thinking about cruising and we have begun to consider a New Year’s Eve cruise with the kids, since spring break is impossible for the next few years (husband and I both teach, and our spring breaks are off until my district shifts again). Anyway, just wanted to say hi again and I hope everyone is well and planning for cruising with a vengeance (and a prayer that things open up soon)! Jane

[Please forget that I just said, 2 days ago, that I would not book any new cruises] Just booked the 9-4-22 14 night Voyager out of Copenhagen repositioning to Boston. So excited about going to Norway, Iceland and Greenland ! It's expensive but I was able to get a casino discount so that helped quite a bit.

The CDC has just announced that they will releasing guidelines for restricting the availability and use of towels on Cruise Ships.

I haven't left the state of Florida since February 2020, but that's about to change as I'm taking my oldest daughter skiing for her first time. As a kid, I'd go skiing all the time. But I haven't gone skiing at all since I think high school, or maybe college. So it has been about two decades since the last time I hit the slopes. Earlier this winter I had looked at going skiing up in Vermont, but quarantine rules make that kind of trip impossible. Then, I saw a Facebook post from @AnnetteJackson's family of a ski mountain in the western hills of North Carolina and I knew I had a

Covid is apolitical. It attacks and infects regardless of physical borders or virtual borders created by virtual fences created by politics. That's all well and good but when posts move beyond expressing a view and words are directed towards individuals it moves to another level beyond the scope of a cruise centric community. It's also disrespectful to the owner of this wonderful community and forum when posts venture well beyond the scope and purpose of this forum as established by its owner. This is not a forum to discuss if Ford is better than Chevy, if Airbus is better than

@princevaliantus you're also missing the fact other ships in the fleet are not delayed until Q4 2021. Very few, if anyone, ever thought the entire fleet of Royal Caribbean ships would be sailing by the end of this year. The question isn't when will every ship be back in service, rather, which ships will return to service first.

So the surgery went without a hitch. Got there at 6:15, was being carted into the OR right on time at 7:30. A few minutes later, I was in blackout from whatever cocktail they put in my IV before wheeling me in there. I woke up at 8:30, zero pain in the foot. Doc said the local injections he was giving me should be good for 8, maybe even 10 hours. He also said, and this is the part I wasn’t so thrilled to hear, that the skin was pretty tight after he sutured everything up. Even with the Z-plasty approach he used. His estimate is a 50-75% chance this is going to work. He said he was de

Please leave the political discussion out of this. This thread is about RC requiring crew to get the vaccine. I don't care how funny you think your joke about any politician is, it has no place here. Most of you are well aware of this rule, and the fact someone else posts it doesnt give you carte blanche to respond back. Report it and the mods will deal with it. This is not the forum for political discussion. Nor is it the place to discuss alternative theories on how vaccines "work". If your post doesn't include something about cruising, it doesn't belong here. I kn

Getting home and dropping my bag onto the floor, tearing my mask off and slumping into a seat after an exhausting day at work, I thought to myself "I really need a vacation" That's really the catalyst of what got me booking a cruise in the first place. For all intents and purposes, this would basically be my first cruise. I know I went on one when I was a really young kid, but all I remember from it was the inside of the cabin. Having not left Singapore in over a year and a half, I was getting stir crazy on this little island. I needed to get away from all of it, and low and beho

Whether you agree with the measures or not, you will most likely have the choice to go on the cruise or not. If anything, whenever cruises resume in other parts of the world, I would assume that there would be the option to cancel without penalty due to these measures, if not outright cancelling sailings and re adding new “measure introduced” mirror sailings that would probably be cheaper. That’s what happened in Singapore. All sailing were cancelled and replaced with the ocean getaways. The new sailing also had 50% off every passenger to make it a little more attractive. I don’t kno

That's easier than you may think...

I've received an update to my programming. We've all grown accustomed to yet another round of bad news, more cancellations, etc. that it's hard to believe the light at the end of tunnel is actually a light and it's getting brighter... and no it's not a train about to slam into us. There will be more cancellations simply because the entire fleet won't start sailing on May 1st so don't confuse my optimism as a suggestion of only good news from now on. There will be small setbacks and cancellations for some cruises coming. If you close your eyes and squint ever so slightly there

Oh sure. Star Class on the first cruise. Genie mode engaged. On my first cruise Jeanie was this annoying lady at our table in the MDR. On second thought maybe that was my ex-wife.

Hydroxychloroquine and Zinc for everyone !

Considering this forum is about Royal Caribbean cruises, I'd say it's spot on. I certainly noticed and lamented my "one year since my last cruise" anniversary.

Not really much to report. There is some kind of "tape" that was covering the incision site, and that's now started to come off on its own. Underneath, I can see what looks like a nicely healing incision. That's as descriptive as I'll get, to spare those with more sensitive constitutions. And we checked our daughter's bank account balance, to see how much see had actually saved up from work for the trip to Japan. She was thrilled to find out that even though she hasn't worked since February of last year, she was so aggressive with her savings during the time she was working that she ha

I forgot something in that last update. Our younger daughter (aka the artist, whose work I’ve shown in earlier live blogs) got her acceptance notice for the summer Japanese Language and Cultural Immersion program that she applied for nearly a year ago! Assuming she’s able to get vaccinated in time and nothing else comes along to muck things up, she’ll be spending 4 weeks with a host family in Kyoto from mid-July through mid-August. This is a huge deal for her. She’s been self-studying Japanese for almost a year now, and has been saving money from her part-time job to help pay for it

I STILL WANT BMcBFOTS!!!

Oh, it's not faint.

This is how the CDC cruise ship task force interprets that graph...

Star Class cruise? I think I can hear the faint sound of sobbing coming from the direction of Ontario..... This sounds like a great trip!

2021 and beyond cruise wear

I agree with @twangster in his assessment. There is a lot of positive change coming, and I think we are on the precipice of many promises finally coming our way. The rollout of the vaccine, plummeting cases, very good news about its efficacy, and imminent information from the CDC for cruise lines all point to ships being able to sail again. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will be on a cruise ship as a paying guest by the end of 2021.

Every other post is doom and gloom!!! Everyday is like groundhog day with the same virus talk being said over and over again. Im not wearing a mask onboard! Thats fine but you wont be sailing!! Its not a vacation!If thats how you feel stay at home!!! Cant make me do this or that! Well if you want to cruise they can!! Against my rights etc etc etc I can read and its on tv every hour i dont really want to log on here and its the same! Its boring to be honest! Way i see it we can all try and predict the future but no one really can, if we could would we really

There are other boards‽

Hi Patt, There are a lot of advantages! We will always offer the same price Royal Caribbean does, with a few exceptions. The benefit to booking with us is that you have an advocate in your corner to help you plan your trip. This means: - You have someone to continue to look for and apply discounts should any be released (which is very often with RCCL), so that you do not have to spend time doing the same, or potentially missing a better offer. - You have someone to help you navigate the Cruise Planner program. - You have someone to help you make your dining reservations i

Been wearing one 10 hrs a day at work for almost a year now, don't even notice it anymore. I've literally forked food into during lunch because I forgot it was on.

Nope, not upset in any form. I've never subscribed to the belief that the door to the Diamond Lounge should be slammed shut for new members once I achieved that level. The C&A program has had multipliers established for a long time. Those include double points for suites, double points for solo, triple for solo in a suite. These benefit different people to varying degrees. People who sail in suites have long been able to climb faster compared to folks who don't sail in a suite. An existing guest with just 3 points could sail in a suite three times to get to Diamond in

Not at all. How does someone else reaching Diamond faster than you bother you? Someone else getting to Diamond has no material impact on my experience. I wish I could have moved up faster when I was Gold or Emerald. Becoming Diamond isn't a matter of "paying your dues". It's a glorified customer loyalty program, no different than hotels or car rental companies. We should be excited to welcome people into the world of cruising and embrace those that choose to sail often enough to make it to Diamond. Literally, the more the merrier.

Started this new thread topic spurred on by the news of Azamara canceling cruises through June, 2021. If I'm not mistaken, Azamara ports predominantly in locations other than the US (they list Miami as a port of call). I'm not taking much from this news because of that as I think the tendency is going to incorrectly associate Azamara COVID decision making with RCG. I think Azamara will work closely with RCL wrt health protocols but not undertaking test and restarting revenue sailings from US ports with Azamara not sailing from any of them. Having gotten that out of the way, back to the th

Look! A cute baby!

I getting really tired of seeing an adorable husky pup giving us so much pessimism! LOL!

Everyone should know how to contact their elected officials. Start with your local voter registration office or their website. I have already written to my governor and the representatives in Congress for my specific electoral district regarding the CDC and their cruise industry lockout. No elected officials is required to pay any attention to a citizen outside of their district. A senator in Texas couldn't give a hoot what I think because they don't represent me (and I can't vote for or against them). They are accountable to the citizens that reside in their district and those

My pattern from past operations seems to be holding. I need the pain meds like clockwork for some period of time, and after that it’s like some switch has flipped and I more or less don’t need them at all, except to sleep for another couple of nights. Today, only 3 days post surgery, that switch has already flipped. My last pain meds were at 6:30 AM and I haven’t needed anything since then. If I hold to pattern I’ll just need something for sleep tonight and maybe tomorrow, and then I’ll probably be done beyond taking Advil. And why the heck is there suddenly a page about the merit

I submitted Hochberg of the Seas as a suggestion but I never heard back.

What a day! We got an early start on the day, waking up at 6:45 so we could be at the mountain by 8. We rolled in right on time and there was already a giant line for private lessons. My daughter claimed she didn’t need lessons and so I decided to call her bluff and took her out for a few runs. Her first run down might have set a land speed record, but she definitely has the upright stance down. I could see her issue was forming the right “pizza” shape with her skis, and I had bought before the trip clips for the front of the skis to keep them together with

The point is that it prevents severe disease, hospitalization, intubation, and death. That's reason enough for me.

Yes. Only halloween cruises from now on.

Cruising is expensive, I simply cannot justify the expense with any restrictions. We will not cruise again until there are no restrictions and that may be a long time if ever... as much as it pains me to say that.

As I said before, Hubby works in healthcare so it’s a mask always, and the rest of us mask up every time we leave our house. If that gets me on a cruise, awesome! Ready to go.

The face shield is only a supplement to a mask. CDC recommends it only in addition, not in place of, cloth face coverings. I’ll bet no will be the answer.

We love the Intercontinental Miami!! That is our go-to hotel when sailing out of Miami. We always book the Bay View rooms and we also book Club level since that gives you access to their lounge (well worth the extra cost IMO). The hotel is a 5 min walk to Bayside Marketplace where there are tons of choices for dining and shopping. It’s a 15 min ride to South Beach if you want that. And best part is that it takes less than 10 mins to get to the port of Miami. Love that hotel, I miss it.

These restrictions are like everything else in life. You have to stop at a red light, you might get lucky if you do not but eventually you will get tagged. Just because I have to obey traffic laws does not mean I refuse to drive my car because I do not like some of them. Will wearing a mask cause me to not enjoy the ocean breeze and sunshine, no. Will staying 6 feet away from a fellow passenger cause me to not enjoy the Dining hall, Windjammer, shows, getting a drink at the bar or simply walking the ship, no. And in the past I wish I was further than 6 feet from some of the fellow passengers.

Okay, so Magic was to dry dock in 2021 and has to since it's her 10 year ( I sailed Magic once). Paradise, being an older ship has to dry dock more frequently and is also due in 2021 (I sailed a sister ship). Valor is due and must be done in 2021 because, well it's that time since her last dry dock was in 2016 (I've sailed Valor twice). So here is the sugar coated version - these ships have to dry dock in 2021. No choice, must be done or they won't have their certificates to sail. Not a lot of sugar, just facts. Here is the pandemic reality version - these ships must dry dock in 2

This is all excellent news! And FCCs are applied as payments now, which before it came off the cruise fare. Caused all sorts of problems.

I have to wear a mask walking across a large, deserted parking lot when going to work at 3 am and when alone in a cooler breaking down pallets of 75+ lb boxes. Wearing one on vacation won’t bother me in the least.

IT'S (NOT) CRUISE DAY!!! Longshoremen and everyone on the pier are all masked up. WJ looking like it's be cleaned, bagged and stowed. Balcony railing looks like it's been covered to keep the sun from burning off the varnish presumably. Up, up and away... Everyone is wearing a mask on board. No idea what the packages contain. Any guesses? Other than the mess on the pool deck and covers removed from the hot tub shades she looks like she is in great shape. Didn't see a lot of rust on the hull.

It might just be me, but there is a huge difference between being in denial and wanting to point out all the facts before making grand sweeping statements.